The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1887-07-14
SELLING A PICTURE.
HOW THE COMMERCIAL ARTIST
MANAGES TO MAKE MOl1EY.

He Sells Paintings With Comparative
Ease, While the Man of Talent Gets
Lef-Tootins a Worthless PIcture-in
| Anxious Artist.
1t is proposition commanding assent rs
skillful artists do not sell the greatest number
of. pictures Or receive the largest sums of
money for their work. Generally speaking,
it Ii the artist who is tue best salesman who
gets rid OF the most wares. It is the COM
nercial drummer who can paint who puts
the greatest amount of colored canvas on the
market. OF course there certain facts
which 20 to qualify this statement, but, TAX
/ ing t.. whole question of selling pictures III
I their entirety and Ignoring details for a mo-
nIent this statement may be allowed to
! stand as substantially true.
The advantage which a maker of bad
paintings who possesses what is called busl-
ness push and energy has over all artist who
lacks these qualifications, and an artist Csu-
ally does lack them, is the widespread isnor-
ancc of art among the publ: and the utter
innocence among great many picture buyers
of what constitutes good picture. There
arc people buying pictures today, and who
have started III to make O collection, who are
i'll very much tho situation of those abund-
antly financed young ladies who 80 into some
of the dry goods stores uptown and, approach
ing one of the counters, engages i'll the follow
ing conversation:
How much is that jacket! 1t is very
pretty, isn't it!"
Yes" replies the offable saleswomap, "it
is pretty. That jacket is Sll.25."
Only S1l25! 1t can't be very NICE
Am ha ct,.a nd
ioned customer is about to turn awayrau cx-
preston of contempt for such p!ebeian prices
fitting across her pretty face.
"Oh," says the quick saleswoman, our es
have been reduced. But we have some more
expensive ones"
And after going through familiar pro-
cess, the guileless youn. thing pays $50 CT so
for garment very little, if any, better than
the first one which was shown her.
And it is the same way with these artists
and the people who come to them to buy pic
lures If the ortist has that kind of business
sense and morality which manufactures good
opinion for his pictures by placin. all alb
surdly high price on them, he manages to sell
off soodly number of them. The purchasers
esteem them at the value which the artists
who have painted them put Oh them, and buy
them because they arc high priced. The price
asked is about tho only standard whereby
they can measure them. And then the
following dialogue occurs between the scion
of the purchaser and the scion Of Il rival
picture buyer and collector:
Master Brown, aged 6-My pa has got a
magnificent picture in our gallery lG was
painted by Rosa Bonheur, and cost $1,000.
Miss Smith, aged 5-Ify pa has got better
picture than that 1t cost $4,000, and was
painted by my uncle George Washington
Smith.
That squelches the olive branch of the
Browns, and his opinion of Rosa Bonheur is
ruined forever. At all events the artist of
the Horse Fair" compares with 6. w. Smith
as 81, 600 compares with 50 900
TRYING TO SELL \ PICTURE
Keeping i'll mind the ignorance of the every.
day picture buyer, it is obvious that the
young artist who has real talent and who has
the modest opinion of his own work with
which real talent is usually in company, has g
great deal of difficulty i'll getting started. He
cannot so up to canvas of his and say
"Now that is q great picture-a really great
picture. l ask $500 for that. When / ar
dead and cannot paint any more like it that
painting will bring s. 900 at auction"
He cannot toot artistic work in any sucl
baretaced way, and yet it is this kind of toot
ing which sells pictures to q man who know:
that his personal Judgment on composition
isn't worth a row of pins. He accepts the
other mans judgment, the Judgment of the
artist, the salesman-in point of fact of the
commercial drummer who is trying to sell
bill of his own goods. The drummerS bolt
assertion touches his Imagination, appeals t,
his cupidity, and he buys the picture for 500
which may be worth tenth of that amount
while at that very moment there are pictures
|
really works of art, and which would not b
unworthy companions of the Millcts, tn,
Corots, the Salvador Rossas, the Daubigny
and the Geromes which have been purchased
on the advice of disintereSted picture dealers
The perSlstcncy of these commercial artists
has furnished the basis Of a good many anec
dotes which are retailed at art receptions anC
Bohemian supTers. y favorte story is Of on,
fellow who had been III hard luck for som,
time, who captured a would be picture buye
i'll his attic studio, but had unforunatel,
nothing i'll hand which struck the fancy of TIN
customer. After vainy expatiating on hi
D wares aud failing to make a sale he begged t.
make suggestions for pictures i'll the hope O
securing commission and a payment on &C
count But the collector was not impresse,
II and moved toward the door followed by tn
u eager and impecunious artist. As tho arts
followed him down the stairs he stopped th
patron, now anxious to be off with appeal
, to inspect suggestions for pictures which h
hastily outlined on the wall with a piece O
charcoal which he had carried with him frol
the rooms. In this way he followed the ma
down four flights of stairs and the passag
was decorated with sketches throughout it
. entire length, SO that it looked like the pre
u liminary drawings for panorama. Til
= picture buyer oblurate, howevea an
> the artist went back TO his room. rubbing on
"a his sketches with his coat sleeve as lie a<
a cended.-New York Mail and Express
e School for Crime.
Governor Taylor, OF Tennessee, in a recen